An Israeli success in Gaza? Not exactly
Op-ed: Not a single Islamic Jihad or Hamas member was killed in any of the IAF strikes Tuesday. Not a single launching cell was attacked on the most extensive day of battle since Operation Protective Edge, in which the Palestinians fired more than 100 rockets and mortar shells. Hamas may have asked for the ceasefire, but it did it at its best exit point.
So what did we have this week? Two cells, an Islamic Jihad cell and a Hamas cell, which tried to infiltrate the border fence; an IDF strike which killed four of the terrorists in response; and a retaliatory attack, in which Islamic Jihad surprised Israel with the biggest barrage since Operation Protective Edge, a minute before 7 am.
Yes, the terror organization felt confident enough to launch such an unprecedented attack in response to the elimination of one terrorist cell. At this point, we must ask ourselves where was the Israeli intelligence and did it provide a warning about this change of policy in Gaza?
Even if it’s true that they were pushed into it by the Iranians, and this is a claim which should be taken with a pinch of salt, why wasn’t the IDF prepared for it? And how do we know that the IDF wasn’t sufficiently prepared? Because the air defense system wasn’t deployed on the first day the way it is deployed today.
Not a single Islamic Jihad or Hamas member was killed in any of the Air Force strikes. Not a single launching cell was attacked on the most extensive day of battle since Operation Protective Edge, a day in which the Palestinians fired more than 100 rockets and mortar shells.
Security sources say they didn’t want to escalate the events in the south because of the northern front. Well, this argument may have been true when the state of alert in the north was high for fear of an Iranian revenge. But since then, the alert level has dropped, after the Quds Force’s planned activities failed. In other words, such continment policy would have been accepted a month ago, but not this week.
There is no reason to intimidate the public with a threat like the Islamic Jihad in the strip, while the IDF is tenfold stronger. And there is no reason to make threats about occupying the strip, because between a weak response and a ground operation with three divisions, there is a lot of wiggle room for a variety of airstrikes against significant targets.
Israel is saying that Hamas asked for the ceasefire. That may be true, but it did it at its best exit point: Hamas gave Islamic Jihad the green light to open fire, and it decided to end the round when it was convenient for Hamas, without suffering even one casualty.
So in the meantime, Hamas has promised to stop all organizations from firing rockets, but what will happen if it keeps sending cells to the border fence tomorrow morning and they are killed by an IDF force? After all, the same Islamic Jihad set a very expensive price tag for Israel. That’s exactly why we should have only accepted the ceasefire under conditions convenient for Israel, and only after the other side understood the price of losing.
